Top seed and defending champion Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich of Russia beat Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran in the eighth round to regain sole lead in the Grandmaster's section in the 37th Biel International chess festival in Switzerland.
With this emphatic victory, Morozevich took his tally to six points out of a possible eight while Sasikiran follows him with five points.
Local stalwart Yannick Pelletier occupies the third spot on four points and half a point adrift are former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine and Etienne Bacrot of France while Luke McShane is at the bottom of the table with just two points.
Just two more rounds remain in this category-18 event as per FIDE charts, being played on a double round-robin basis between six players.
As the close race between Sasikiran and Morozevich ended with the latter triumphing, it now appears that the die is decisively cast in the favour of the Russian. Morozevich is looking for his second straight victory here after last year's exemplary score of 8/10.
Sasikiran, who played black, once again failed with the Brayer variation of the Ruy Lopez, which he had played in the second round too and lost to Ponomariov.
Morozevich was in his element and proved that even when it comes to playing chess in classical style he is one of the best men in the business. With clinical detachment, Morozevich got a stronghold in the centre after uncorking a new positional idea and caught Sasikiran's Queen unawares on the queenside.
Getting two pieces as compensation was never going to be enough for Sasikiran and he called it a day on the 35th move.
Pelletier was the hero of the day as he outsmarted Ponomariov. Playing black, Pelletier employed the Sicilian Paulsen and after erratic opening manoeuvres by white the players arrived at a wild middle game position wherein both had to play very precisely.
However, Ponomariov went for an illusionary attack against the king while Pelletier knocked down his queenside and even though the Swiss lost two Bishops for a rook his handful of extra pawns proved decisive in the ending. The game lasted 40 moves.
Bacrot gave an impressive endgame display too and got the better of McShane whose return to form in hindsight looks temporary. It was a Ruy Lopez again and McShane missed the thread on course for equality. Bacrot quickly won a pawn as a result and the outcome of the game was never in doubt thereafter. McShane threw the towel in 51 moves.
In the Master's section, Asian junior champion P Magesh Chandran put it across Grandmaster Nukhim Rashkovsky of Russia and took his tally to 5.5 points from eight games played so far.
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